Being a straight edge

Clarifying the my Straight Edge message

I proudly define myself as a Straight Edge individual. I am proud to say that despite nearly all of my friends in high school using drugs or alcohol I never once touched it. It's an accomplishment not many can say they have and overall I believe its kept my head on straight. People tell you your whole life to learn from your mistakes, but why? Why should I learn from MY mistakes? I mean sure I've made mistakes and I have learned from them but I can't count how many mistakes I've avoided learning from OTHERS mistakes. I believe people should be learning from others mistakes. Living a more preventative lifestyle. All the knowledge and none of the consequences. Mainly, to me, this applies to marijuana. I had a lot of friends in high school that smoked it and a lot that regret it. I try my hardest to get people to not smoke it and I try even harder to get people to stop. Pot may not contain things that make it physically addictive, but it is mentally addictive just like anything enjoyable is. I firmly believe that marijuana is a gateway drug. I have no reason not to believe it. Not a single person I have met that smoked pot did not do harder drugs. I understand thats only a small group that I know, but I've also seen various forum and blog post, some from former smokers themselves, saying that this is indeed true. Once you smoke enough pot the high isn't the same and so people start trying harder drugs trying to get a better high. The thing is, people take my anti-drug and anti-alcohol message the wrong way because Straight Edge has gained such a negative connotation. I do not believe I am better than anyone. I don't try to get people to stop smoking because of my morals I do it because I hate to see good people ruin themselves. Creative, outgoing people turned into the laziest people who only want to get high and have no more passion for anything but weed or alcohol. I genuinely care about people. Is that such a bad thing? I understand it's their choice, but a lot of the time, people aren't in a situation where they can clearly think about that choice.